


Villainbent

by laughablyunimportant



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Superheroes, Supervillains, Villains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-22
Updated: 2012-01-22
Packaged: 2017-10-29 22:41:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughablyunimportant/pseuds/laughablyunimportant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just imagine it. 1920s America. A time of indulgence and wealth, of illegal smuggling and organized crime. A time of great innovation and change. A time of...superheroes?</p><p>Nobody's sure why the supers started showing up, or when, exactly. But by the early twentieth century, they are an established thing. Their decisive role in America's victory in The Great War has earned them a place as a somewhat endearing oddity in the United States, but not all countries regard these superhumans with such fondness. And, it turns out, rightly so.</p><p>Just as people with power can use it for good, so will others use it for evil.</p><p>Jade and her gang of Horrorterrors look like little more than a pack of disgruntled kids. But supers are not people you want to get on the bad side of. Unfortunately for the world, <em>everyone</em> seems to be on their bad side already. And the casualties are only going to keep piling up, unless Dave can find a way to keep his friends in check.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Villainbent

**Author's Note:**

> This is something that we have been working on for a while. However, updates for it are likely to be very slow and sporadic, because it's one of the more--well, let's just say things will be slow. Anyway, we hope you enjoy!

The first time you pull a bank heist, you're going to make a few mistakes.

           "I said stay down! Stay the hell _down_!" Jade pressed her gun to the old guy's head and he whimpered, torn between scrambling away from her and staying completely still on the ground.

High energy situation like that, adrenaline pumping, people screaming—It's going to happen. There's no avoiding it.

           Somebody across the room, good-looking young guy, strong jaw, probably some kind of sports hero wherever he comes from, makes him think he's got what it takes to command people—joke if I ever heard one—stood up. He put his hands in front of him, facing out, speaking with that sort of calming tone you reserve for rabid dogs and dames that've gone off their rocker. Too bad Jade's a bit of both. She swung her gun to him and pulled the trigger, no hesitation, mouth hanging open in a fierce grin as the poor schmuck's gal started screaming because her boyfriend is suddenly riddled with big red holes.

The key is to make sure that the mistakes you make don't get anyone killed.

           Then she turned the gun on the dame, riddling her with holes, and the next dame that started screaming, and the next, until everyone was screaming and Jade was shooting indiscriminately into the crowd, laughing like Charlie Chaplain had just leaned in to tell her the world's greatest joke.

Anyone you care about, I mean. 

           I flashed up to her, keeping it fast and low to avoid the heaviest sprays of fire, sword out to deflect anything that came too close. "Jade!" She looked at me, but didn't stop firing, just destroying shit for the helluvit as far as I could tell, since everyone in sight was dead and the ones hiding weren't going to come out any time soon. "Jade, what the hell are you doing? We weren't going to hurt anyone!"  
           She flashed me that grin, tossing her hair out of her eyes as she finally let off the trigger, silence pounding loud in my ears. "Oh, come _on_ Da—Knight." She giggled. "Nobody's going to respect us if we don't kill a couple of people the first time out."

Because as noble as your intentions might be about not hurting innocent people, you'll find out about three seconds in that intentions are worth exactly jack shit.

           "Besides," she said, slapping a new magazine in the gun and bringing the butt up to her shoulder. "It's so much more _fun_ this way." Her voice was a fierce whisper at the last, and the heavy thunder of the gunfire to follow helped me convince myself that she must've said something different. She must've.

When the bullets start to fly and people are dying, it's all you can do to keep one or two of them alive.

           I stood there, watching her pound more bullets into the wall, praying the stupid norms would have enough sense to just stay behind whatever cover they had and hope to not get hit. Then John came back from the vault carrying sacks of money, gust of wind billowing out before him to announce his presence and make Jade stop firing. He looked around the trashed lobby, frown creasing his features, and I never thought I'd be so relieved for him to look less than happy.  
           "What happened?" he asked.  
           Jade shrugged, shouldering her weapon. "Setting a precedent."  
           John pursed his lips, looking to me. I gave a shrug back. "Next time we won't have to hurt anyone, if word about this gets around."  
           He gave a hesitant grin back, and I struggled to keep the emotion off my face. What kind of reasoning was that? Why was that the line of thought that made sense to them?  
           Why did I know that?  
           Feeling sick to my stomach, I turned back to the door, little more than a metal frame and piles of shattered glass now. "Let's go," I said. "Rose hates when we're off-schedule." I waited for the crackle and snap of air that meant Jade had disappeared to look up at John, still floating with satchels full of money like a cliché out of a vaudeville sketch. "We can't let her do that again." John didn't say anything, so I tacked on, "We get too murderous, and supers are going to start showing up to take us down. Heavy duty ones. We aren't ready to handle that yet."  
           He gave a nod then, brow furrowing. "You're right." He rose a foot, as though about to take off, then paused. "Besides," he said. "Bullets are expensive." Then he flew out one of the shattered windows, leaving eddies of wind in his wake.  
           I walked over to the counter, hopping over it to look for a phone. There was a woman huddled under the desk, clutching one of her arms tight, blood dribbling down in red streaks. When she got a load of me her eyes went wide, whole body shaking and little whimpers dribbling out of her lips. I passed her by, spotting a phone hanging on the wall, and picked it up, asking the operator for the police. Then I handed the phone to the woman, hopped back over the counter, and took off running.

The rest of the world will just have to take care of itself.


End file.
